Grid Effect

Save for a few scenes, another pretty bland episode. Tons of recycled material and little development, everything seems to be forced instead of happening organically, especially with Tommy. I guess the assertion is his life is a never ending sequence of dramatic/traumatic events that raise his ire, but there has never been even a remotely dull period in this guys life. That’s partly why this series is good (arguably great in the first season) but nowhere near the class of The Sopranos or The Wire (Both of which being the gold standard of dramatic television). Onto the recap…

Pre-credits scene, we open with Sheila lecturing Tommy about that bizarre insurance scam that they apparently decided to run when immediately after they regained consciousness following the fire she started. She tries to lecture him about needing the money himself. She Tommy wants to know about the evening in question, she gives him the same song and dance about him being an out of control drunk being the case. He immediately starts breaking all of the expensive furniture in her new loft to extort honest answers. It’s over-priced glass, essentially.
He persuades her into giving a mildly accurate, but she conveniently leaves out the part about her drugging him and accidentally setting the place ablaze. She says he flipped out when he was drunk because he couldn’t produce an erection, and sheds some crocodile tears about the mythical experience, which Tommy completely buys. He leaves and she smiles triumphantly.

Tommy talks with his lawyer and apparently the story is gold because him being unable to get hard is a plausible reason why he lied in the first place. The lawyer raises his voice and a table of women look over at Tommy when he utters the phrase, “limp, lifeless, little dick”.

Jerry trot-jogs on a treadmill, apparently he is exceeding his expected recovery time.

Probie/Mike is visiting his cancer stricken mother, and insists on staying for some routine but painful procedure.

Kenny and Franco watch diminutive Larenz Tate play basketball and marvel at his excellence as several other lieutenants drool over him. Kenny wants to recruit the kid by letting him avoid menial tasks that come with the territory. Franco agrees to play nice with Kenny to give off the impression of racial bonding when his Richie calls.

Janet talks with their young daughter about their new son, they have a charming conversation about whether or not the kid likes her, given his penchant for vomiting, the daughter wants to call him puke-face, despite Janet’s protests, she does so anyway as she leaves for school.

Jerry is talking about his physical health to some RN and about his sons wedding. He pretends his son is straight which I suppose was the point of this scene, illustrating that he still hasn’t come to grips with his son’s sexuality.

Rich apparently tried to eat some piece of jewelry in a store, Franco calms the situation and sees some ring that catches his eye and inquires about the price. Rich says he needs to buy his girlfriend one of those and Franco points out that it will take much less to keep her attention.

Probie/Michael is talking about his mother’s condition, its fairly grim. Probie thinks it means she’ll be alright, the guy spells it out to him in no uncertain terms, somewhat callously but understandable, given how busy he is and Probie’s naivete. Mike calls his mom the Babe Ruth of cancer, saying she can beat it. Doc points out that is how Babe Ruth died: from cancer.

Maggie is voluntarily throwing out her pornography, much to Sean’s excitement. Then she talks about her spank bank, which I guess is a collection of scenarios one (typically a guy) saves to masturbate from. Not to get to personal but I have never heard of this phrase before, if it’s there I resolve the situation, if it’s not I leave it alone. I have never heard of a title doned to a collection of masturbatory fantasies.

Tommy talks in a law office, it’s really melodramatic. They had to show us scenes immediately after the fire if it was supposed to impact him or anyone to the point we’re supposed to be on the edge of our seat watching this. They lighten the mood with him asking if the stenographer (the only woman in the office has to be there, and obviously she does. The writers decided to cut out the rehashing of the story, thank God. Sheila is sitting outside, supposedly waiting to go in and tell her version of the story. She is with some stranger, making out, Tommy definitely takes notice.

Jerry and his kid talk on the phone about random shit. The replacement chief comes in and they have a dick measuring contest about the arrangement of the firehouse. Yawn.

Janet, who looks much better this season, answers a call about her daughter and discovers she is supposedly lambing it.

Teddy is being released from prison and looking forward to being able to sleep on his stomach again. MADD was the driving force behind his early release.

In the car, Janet calls Tommy about Colleen running away, they break down the situation with some assistance from Teddy’s wife, who insists Colleen will be home in two months. Tommy decides to track her down by getting information about the guy…

And demands to stop at a liquor store and they all assume it’s for him. Though his concern is clear, it doesn’t stop Teddy from asking for a bottle of Cristal. Upon entering, Tommy gazes admiringly at the numerous options and gets some Johnny Blue, running about $200 in the city. He gets a call from Nona, who, for whatever reason, is all over his cock despite his resistance. He gets her to settle down by telling the sad saga of his daughter running away. I either need to get into fire-fighting or come to the realization that women, in all corners of the world, do not operate like this.

Probie’s mom wants him to be euthanized. Obviously he’s hesitant, but she makes a decent case in the vein of Kavorkian. It’s convincing, at least for Probie. She closes her speil with: “Momma loves you baby, now go find something to kill me with”.

Teddy was apparently under the impression that his woman would dump him after he got out of prison, but she doesn’t have the same mindset she used to. He feigns excitement and excuses himself, next we see is of him running out the back.

Kenny talks with the other lieutenant who hates Jewish people. He threatens to dig up dirt on his house if he goes after Larenz Tate. Kenny walks off undeterred.

Tommy talks with Johnny’s old partner, the guy is pretty broken up and Tommy just seems perturbed he still has to deal with any kind of mourning, we get to the point of the visit: Tommy wants hombre to find his kid. The guy says his hands are tied, Tommy persists, the guy begrudgingly agrees to look him up. Tommy mutters some nonsense as he walks away, the guy asks him what he said, Tommy lies. Doesn’t this guy know Tommy isn’t much for rules and regulations or chain of command or anything like that? I mean, he was Johnny’s partner for at least a few years when he was runnign scams and cutting corners for Tommy. I guess Johnny kept all of that real close.

Tommy and Janet argue over who is at fault for their marriage (the most recycled of all the material), Tommy goes out to the kitchen, thinking he’s hearing someone walk in and thay immediately suspect it’s Colleen. Tommy looks under the covers and sees Johnny staring right back at him, no word on Colleen.

All the guys sit around the kitchen as Kenny cooks, Sean walks in and says, “Can I ask you something” and Kenny completely rails him about how when he asks such a question it leads to a regrettable conversation. He asks about spank banks, Leary says, “Ellen Degeneres (long pause), have you seen her dance?” In short, this scene exemplifies why anyone watches this show:
Lieu: Jessica Biel.
Sean: She’s old enough to be your daughter, Lieu.
Lieu: Bingo.
And several similar exchanges. Sean runs through his and subconsciously says Janet, he tries to back track and Kenny collects all the knives, foreseeing an unpleasant reaction from Tommy. And Tommy does, indeed go ballistic when Sean gets into details. Like Jeff Green would say, “I thought it was a compliment”. Tommy wonders aloud if anyone beats off to his eighteen year old daughter and the room falls silent. Sean is shaking and Tommy follows him when he heads outside.

They get a call and in the truck Tommy talks with Sheila about the guy she was with, its apparently the guy who saved her, Tommy calls it a cliche, which is apparently why he’s refusing the advances of Nona, Jennifer Esposito. Yeah, I know, If I am ever in the sitaution in which Jennifer Esposito is willfully propostioning me, I don’t give a shit about what the circumstances are, I’m using the opportunity to the fullest of my capabilities.

Tommy gets a call to the whereabouts of his daughter, and they leave their work site to track said guy down. Kenny asks him to reconsider, Tommy is defiant but looks conflicted.

Eventful, but really the pacing needs toned down. There is almost too much taking place and I’d say this has been the case for about a season and a half. I suppose not everyone needs a storyline at every waking second of screentime. Reducing the amount of actors highlighted in each episode actually enables the writers to flesh out the characters better. Right now its a jumbled mess of trauma and I cannot relate to it or become vested in it because nothing is really developed. Usually the second half of the Rescue Me season trumps the first, one would expect this to be the case in the fourth season as well.